Bantu languages
characteristically have rich morphological paradigms, most notably an extensive
system of noun classes (NC). NC markings are found on categories such as nouns,
adjectives, demonstratives, relative pronouns, and verbs. The heterogeneity of
surface environments is mirrored by a multitude of treatments in the literature.
Among other proposals, NC markers are treated as agreement, pronouns,
determiners, and as categories with ambiguous characteristics[1].
The relevant literature usually concentrates on class marking on a particular
category, and the proposals are not necessarily transferable from one categorial
domain to another.

In
this paper, I argue that class markers are manifestations of the same underlying
feature cluster in all surface environments. Furthermore, the local structural
configuration containing class markers is exactly the same whether the class
marker occurs on N, A, or V. Thus, I provide a unified account of
morpho-syntactic phenomena that have so far been treated as instances of
categorial ambiguityand/or
multiple lexical entries.